Persian Bluff
by TR-Fanfic
Summary: What would Mac do if Sadiq Fahd had done more than just blow up Harm's battery? Don't worry, not a death fic.


Summary: What if Sadiq Fahd had come after Harm as Mac feared in Persian Gulf? What if he was there when Mac came home to find the diamond on her bed? Hmmm….

This is a short scene that just came to me last night. I felt like writing something whoop ass. I hope you like it. Feel free to expand on it if you wish. Just don't kill them off or break them up.

Honest Feedback is always appreciated.

I don't own JAG, but if I did, I would have released the DVD sets starting with season 10 and working up to season 1. Because, hell, why not?

Persian Bluff

By TR

Rated Mild

Mac's senses flew to high alert even before her foot slipped over the threshold. Eyes wide, she shifted her weight, and drew her weapon from its hiding place. Tapping the door closed with her heal, she moved with precision, scanning the room. It was immaculate. Perfect to the point of sterility. As if the soul had been picked clean, leaving only the blinding white bone. Her possessions were still there. Everything in its place. But the warmth, the comfort of home, was gone. And though she couldn't pinpoint the reasons why, she felt cold. The air was thick, prickling her skin with the indisputable sting of danger. Arabian music filled the room, threatening to suffocate her with memories of screaming, and murder, and the malodor of hatred. Her nostrils flared, as they burned with a familiar and maddening stench. The pungent molasses funk that hung stagnate in the air whenever he was near. The smell of incense, hypocrisy, and narcissism. She knew then. Knew he was there.

The flash of the lone diamond on the table, sealed her suspicions. Which, she assumed, was exactly what he wanted. The stage was too perfect, the clues too deliberate for him to be doing anything but baiting her. He wanted to be found, wanted her to seek him out. He waited, she knew, somewhere inside her home. Inside her domain. A violation of its own. The first, she surmised, in a long list of violations that he intended to inflict on her. She stared at the bedroom door, and knew that's where he laid waiting. Waiting for her to come to him. To submit to his will. "Like a lamb to the slaughter," she murmured. Not this time. Not ever. If he wanted her, he'd have to come to her, on her terms.

Carefully she turned, settling herself into a corner chair. Selecting a vantage point that gave full view of the room. It didn't take long for her to feel his patience begin to crumble. Her bedroom door creaked a long slow warning, and she tensed, preparing.

"Hello Sarah."

The sound of his voice made her want to puke. She frowned in faux confusion. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

He laughed. Bile rose to her throat. He laughed again and her finger twitched on the trigger. A split second was all it would take to cut down the personification of malevolence standing before her. "Surely you remember me."

She shrugged, "I'm sorry, I only remember interesting people."

He stepped forward, faltering when he spotted the gun in her hand. "Ah, I see you do remember me. You know Sarah, we're not all that different you and me." He gestured to the stereo, as the same song began again. It had been this song that he had played at the compound in the Chaco Boreal. Over and over. Until it invaded their minds, throbbing and pulsing in a never ending dirge. Chipping away at their sanity little by little. "We're of the same blood. We have the same destiny."

"We're nothing alike Sadiq. I accept the right to free will. And from where I'm sitting I'm the only one who's free." She raised the gun. "Because I'm not letting you walk out of here."

His eyes flashed, and she caught a glimpse of the animal within. "You think you have it all figured out don't you. I'm disappointed Sarah. You have so much potential, but refuse to see the truth. You are only the shadow of a woman. Barren, no husband or children to make you whole."

"I don't need anything to make me whole, but my dignity. You could never take that from me Sadiq, no matter how you tried."

"You call this dignity?" He said, flinging his hand toward her. "Look at you. You're nothing but a whore!" She raised the gun. He smiled. "Does that upset you? Are you going to kill me for exposing you for what you really are?"

"No, I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to make sure they lock you up in a cold dark concrete box, with nothing but spoiled food and the stench of your own waste to keep you company. That's what you like to do to people isn't it? Break them down until they bend to your will? Well this time it's your turn. You can't break me."

"Oh no? Don't underestimate me Sarah. I can strike anyone, at any time that I choose." He lifted his hand, revealing a small detonation device.

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to scare me?"

"No, it's supposed to educate you. You hide behind your pathetic facade of strength. Refusing to accept your place. I am here to teach you the meaning of strength. You can't stop me. Have you forgotten that it was a man who saved you? Who killed my men and took you away from me? You are merely a woman."

She stood, training the gun on him. "Drop it!"

"Don't you want to know what it's for?"

"I don't care. Drop it now Sadiq!"

"Or what?"

"You'll lose your hand. And don't for one minute believe that I can't do it."

"You won't do it. Because this device." He held it up, and waved it before her. "Is designed to kill."

"Kill who?"

"Your lover." Her eyes darted to the bedroom door, then back again. "Ah, see. Weakness." He shook his head. "You don't even know which one it is do you? Is it your spy? The one you begged on your knees for me to show mercy to? Or is it your Commander?"

She glared, never wavering. "Let him go."

"Which one would you choose Sarah?"

"Let him go!"

"You won't risk it. All I have to do is squeeze my hand and he's blown to bits."

"And that will accomplish what exactly, Sadiq? I don't care who you have hidden in there. You're not going to kill anyone in my home."

"Oh, and there's where you are mistaken. I'm going to kill you first, so that he'll have to watch you die in your cowardice. He's not going to come in and save you this time!" Mac's heart dropped. Harm! Sadiq nodded. "He is your lover isn't he? Whore! He is the one who warms your bed while your spy is on the other side of the world, trying to find me." He laughed.

"You will not touch him!"

His eyes turned to stone. "I won't have to," He whispered, locking her eyes with his. "I can kill him from here."

Mac's foot shot out with lightning speed, knocking the device from his grasp. Sadiq howled as his wrist snapped in two. She was over him in an instant. Her knee digging into his chest. "If I find out that you have hurt a hair on his head, there's no power on earth that will be able to save you."

He reached up in rage, wrapping his good hand around her throat. "It is you who will not be saved!"

She raised her arm, and knocked him cold with the butt of her gun.

Panting she stood, and raced into her room. Harm sat in an arm chair next to her bed. His hands and feet were bound, and his mouth gagged. His eyes widened in shock as he saw her disheveled state.

"Are you alright?" She asked, still breathless.

He frowned, trying to read her lips. Then nodded.

Quickly she removed his gag and went to work on his bindings. "How long have you been here?" He shouted. She pulled back and put a finger to her lips. He nodded, and said more quietly, "How long have you been here?"

"About 20 minutes." She looked him in the eye. "Can you hear me?"

"If you come close. And I can read your lips."

"Okay. Don't move," she said as she released the last of the ropes. "You hear me Harm, don't move!" She pointed deliberately to the chair, telling him to stay put.

He frowned, but did as she asked.

She disappeared into the living room and came back a minute later with the detonation device. She held it up for him to see. His eyebrows rose.

"Is there a bomb?" She asked.

He shook his head. "I didn't see one."

She knelt and looked under his chair, then under the bed. She saw nothing. Convinced that Sadiq had been bluffing, she let out a long shaky breath.

"Mac, are you alright?"

Trembling, she moved to him, wrapping him in her arms. "I am now," she whispered. Knowing he probably couldn't hear her. She held on tight, stroking his back and laying kisses in his hair. "I don't know what I would have done..."

That he heard. "What happened?"

"He said he was going to kill you."

Harm's eyes rounded in shock. "You didn't kill him did you?"

She shook her head. "I didn't have to." She pulled back. "But I would have Harm. There is nothing in the world I wouldn't have done to keep you safe."

"Thank you."

"Thank YOU," she said.

He smiled. "We're even," he said, stumbling as he tried to hoist himself up out of the chair.

She held him around the waist. "Still having problems?"

He nodded. "That's how he got the jump on me. I couldn't keep my balance. He put something over my nose. Judging by the headache I've got, I'd put my money on Chloroform."

Her eyes hardened. "Did he hurt you?"

"Besides the battery explosion? No. I woke up here, tied to the chair. I'm sorry Mac, if I had known he had you out there, I would have..."

"Distracted me from what I needed to do. I'm glad you didn't know. You've worried over me enough."

"I'll never stop worrying over you." He told her, as she helped him lie flat on the bed.

She smiled. "That's good to hear."

He took her hand and pulled her down next to him. She went willingly. "It's not so bad is it?"

"What?"

"Sharing the top."

She dropped her eyes to the bed, then met his again. "No, it's not so bad at all."

"You know Mackenzie, there's still a conversation that needs to be had."

"I know. But..."

"But what? You and Webb?"

"No, not me and Webb. I was going to say first things first." She picked up the phone. "Kershaw please."

"I'm sorry Ma'am, he's in a meeting."

"This is Colonel Mackenzie. I've captured Sadiq Fahd."

"I'll patch you through."

"Colonel?"

"I've got him."

"Where?"

"Right now he's bleeding on my carpet."

"Don't tell me you killed him."

"Not quite, but I'm not promising anything if he wakes up."

"We're on our way."

"Thanks."

She clicked off the phone, turned to Harm, and took a deep breath. "About that discussion."

"Yes?"

"How about dinner tonight?"

"You sure you're up to it?"

"I am, if you are. Something small." She took his hand, tracing circles over his skin with her thumb. "Intimate."

"I'd like that."

"Good." Slowly she stretched up and laid a soft kiss on his mouth, pulled back and went in for another. "I'd better get back out there."

He nodded and handed her the gun. She gave him a smile, before she stepped into the living room, and waited for them to come and take away the madman lying on her floor.

End of scene. Good? Bad? UTI? Let me know.


End file.
